A new breakthrough in Beacon tech

from tele tips

http://www.telemarktips.com/Resources/beacon.jpg

Ortovox S1 Avalanche Transceiver
February 1, 2005-- Easily the biggest news from OR this year has to be the unveiling of the Ortovox S1 avalanche transceiver. The new digital display beacon features an LCD screen that maps out the location of single or multiple burial victims, giving the searcher distance info, "x" markings representing the victims and a cross hair representing the rescuer's current reletive position. This looks like it's going to be a major breakthrough in beacon technology.

I obviously haven't played around with this beacon but IMO the biggest area for improvement is some type of three dimensional fine search. I'm not sure how you could make a beacon any beter between say 30 meters and 2 meters than the BCA. Once you are in fine search mode with a burried beacon (1 meter plus), you have to be very well practiced to minimize the probing area and amound of snow you need to dig out.

I think most beacons make a bit of a pig's ear of multiple burials. Anything that makes this aspect easier is a major breakthrough.

agreement w/ laseranimal
i am calling ortovox from work today to figure out wholesale/retail and avail dates... and will report back.
i may palce an order if anyone wants one... we can usually do about 10% or better off for special orders.

This is Sweeeet.
It would be awesome to see a pic of where you are and where the multiple signals are and how far away they are.

I can't imagine how hard it must be to turn away from the weaker signal of your farther away bud to find your nearer buddy. With this beacon you would know roughly in what direction and how far away that other signal was. This definitely would be an improvement.

With this kind of sensitivity and advanced design, I wonder if they have now pushed the digital beacon to an equal or higher range than analog?? (e.g, 60 meter vs. 40 meter initial range)?

Maybe they have tweaked the near search also?? I hope so.

Ask Ortovox about the range, please.

Hats off to Ortovox for advancing beacon technology...a graphical screen is the obvious direction for improvement.

Unfortunately, Ortovox does not have a good track record with new product introductions...

Anyone who gets the first generation of this thing is crazy. As far as I know nobody has even used it and the idea only exists on paper. Yikes.

I too saw this at OR, sound like a great idea; I'd really like to see how it works in person, BTW the one in that picture wasn't out for hands-on testing when I was around, it was in a glass display case, like you'd see in a museum.

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Originally Posted by bad_roo

I think most beacons make a bit of a pig's ear of multiple burials. Anything that makes this aspect easier is a major breakthrough.

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Originally Posted by Foggy Goggles

I'm not sure how you could make a beacon any beter between say 30 meters and 2 meters than the BCA.

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Check out the Barryvox. Intuitive, easy to use unit, and handles multiple burial situation well IMO. Also able to customize for more advanced use if you wish.

talked to ortovox... those guys or obviously stoked on it.
not available till thanksgiving, but beta models have been around for almost a year according to them... sounds interesting.

Here an interview with Marcus Peterson from Ortovox on the new tranciever http://www.telemarktips.com/Resources/beaconOR05Sm.wmv

I was just thinking about this the other day while practicing a triple burial with my Pieps DSP. I'm very comfortable with finding one, I'm not bad with two, but 3 is hard as hell.

With all of the amazing things you can accomplish with handheld devices, there's no valid reason why beacons are so ridiculously behind the times. My Palm can do just about everything except slice bread. You can even get GPS palms now. So why is this so friggen hard? It's about time someone came out with a beacon like this.

That is IF it performs as advertised.

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Originally Posted by Magoo

Check out the Barryvox. Intuitive, easy to use unit, and handles multiple burial situation well IMO. Also able to customize for more advanced use if you wish.

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something to keep in mind with the barryvox though is they tend to pick up other barryvox signals better than those from other companies. i.e. it's possible to latch onto a barryvox beacon that's further away than another manufacturer's beacon that's closer.

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Originally Posted by Arty50

With all of the amazing things you can accomplish with handheld devices, there's no valid reason why beacons are so ridiculously behind the times. My Palm can do just about everything except slice bread. You can even get GPS palms now. So why is this so friggen hard? It's about time someone came out with a beacon like this.

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Because there isn't a sufficiently big market for them - Millions of Palms, Blackberrys and cellphones get sold with these gizzmos every year. I doubt the worldwide beacon market can be more than 50,000 units annualy.

I'm no so sure this is the great breakthrough everyone things, but if it is it's definately worth the $500


Here's good discussion on it: http://www.telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=38051

What a bunch of fucking Luddites. :cussing:

With a price tag like that, i doubt that i would ever buy one.

This looks really cool, but I'm going to be cautious about my enthusiasm considering the hash they made of the X1.

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Originally Posted by Arty50

You can even get GPS palms now.

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Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see beacons become GPS-based instead of radio-based in the near future. This little guy is supposed to make the next generation of GPS devices accurate to just a few centimeters. Your beacon could tell you the exact location of a dozen burials and direct someone with little experience precisely to each one.

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Originally Posted by Dantheman

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see beacons become GPS-based instead of radio-based in the near future. This little guy is supposed to make the next generation of GPS devices accurate to just a few centimeters. Your beacon could tell you the exact location of a dozen burials and direct someone with little experience precisely to each one.

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Won't work - a GPS receiver can't get a fix when buried under snow.

How about an avi transciever mated with an iPod.

Listen to tunes while you are buried...

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Originally Posted by marshalolson

not available till thanksgiving,

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Talked to several dealers recently - they were suggesting Xmas, maybe, for availability. $600 or so price.

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Originally Posted by PNWbrit

Won't work - a GPS receiver can't get a fix when buried under snow.

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For most, yes this is true. Would also depend on snow depth and density.

GPS is getting better and better. I have a 3D Diff fix right now in my office, yes, IN, with 0.4 meter accuracy with a Trimble ProXH reciever and an Allegro CX handheld computer. Hstar technology and SirfIII are just the start of what is to come.



Just give it time.

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Originally Posted by Buzzworthy

Just give it time.

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Wouldn't the issue be signal attenuation through snow? Namely, GPS frequencies don't propogate well in snow?

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Originally Posted by Buzzworthy

For most, yes this is true. Would also depend on snow depth and density.

GPS is getting better and better. I have a 3D Diff fix right now in my office, yes, IN, with 0.4 meter accuracy with a Trimble ProXH reciever and an Allegro CX handheld computer. Hstar technology and SirfIII are just the start of what is to come.



Just give it time.

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I'm sure at some point it'll work

But wouldn't a system which triangulates several searchers multiple antenna digital beacons (or just one searcher with several fixes) be just as or more useable?